The CCR Band Live At The Mack
SHUNIAH, ONTARIO November 13, 2017 (LSN) The CCR Band (aka The Cajun Country Rock Band) is a tribute to the music of Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty. The members of the band are myself, Andy Wolff on lead vocals, lead guitar and harmonica; Paul Cherwonick on rhythm guitar, background vocals; Arek Chamski on bass guitar, background vocals and Ernie Craig on drums, background vocals.
They have had much local success playing a variety of events this past year and look forward towards the New Year.. The CCR Band will be performing at the Mackenzie-Riverside Pizzeria and Lounge this Saturday, November 18th, 2017, between 6-10pm. This show promises to be our best yet, since we will be incorporating all aspects of our band for this performance.
The first part our show will be done in a jug/skiffle band arrangement with harmonica, acoustic guitar, wash board and wash tub bass. This arrangement originated as a promo photo shoot to emulate The Willy and the Poorboys album cover. While our photographer was taking pictures we were actually performing various CCR songs to make it more authentic. Public reception warranted us to incorporate this in our future performances. Here is a link to what this performance done at the Royalton on Victoria Day.
Later on we are going to rock out the night by playing all CCR hits. Here’s an example of what we will be performing later that night
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Here is a little history of what our band did this year. The first performance of the year was at the Apollo Bar. We played to a small crowd, but they stayed with us till the end of the night. They even asked for an encore. On Victoria Day, we decided to have a photo shoot with us in a jug/skiffle band format. The byproduct of this promotion led to the idea of actually incorporating this arrangement into our shows. Our next show proved to be a significant turn of events. We decided to bill our next show as “Live At The Five” which was of course at the Royal Canadian Legion, Branch #5. Over the year, numerous events have been held there with good attendance from with the likes of Tracy K, The Scott Van Teefelen Band, Friday After Work Party with Rodney Brown, Sunday Night Open Stage hosted by Eddie M and Karaoke Nights. To that date, we had the best attendance. The crowd wanted us to play encores well after our scheduled time.
On a rainy Canada Day what could have turned into a no-show, turned into a success. Although the outdoor venue got rained out, we decided to give the crowd something by performing 2 hours worth of jug band style CCR tunes in the West Thunder cafeteria. Later that evening we played The Royalton to an enthusiastic crowd.
We decided to sign up for the Buskersfest this past summer playing again in our jug band format. This led to a Band Councillor from Whitesand First Nations, offering us gig to play up there later that summer. The event was a phenomenal success. After the show, many people wanted our autographs. It took us a half an hour to accomplish this. It just goes to show, how appreciative this audience was towards us.
We were invited to play this year’s Ribfest in the downtown core. The CCR Band was the featured band in the Chronicle Journal. Later that evening, we filled up the Apollo Bar with many people from the out of town who saw us earlier that afternoon. During the course of this past summer, we were also invited to play numerous private parties for people who had seen us previous shows.
As the summer was winding down, we played on Labour Day Weekend at The Hodder Tavern. Once again, there were a lot of people who attended the show and stayed till the end of the evening. The following Saturday, we played the I Run and Rock event at Boulevard Lake Park opening for the Canadian band, Harlequin.
Or latest gig was a HALLOWEEN PARTY at The Lakeview Lodge. I have a strong attachment to the Lodge. It was the first bar I drank in and played my first professional gig in a band. It was an awesome place to play, a good turnout, great audience participation and this room has good sound.
So what does the future hold for us?
We are working on putting out a promo video to market to casinos, cruise ship lines and festivals. We are planning to tour all the Royal Canadian Legions across Northern Ontario. We are always striving to be the best Creedence Clearwater Revival tribute band to ever play the stage. We look forward to seeing you all out at our show this weekend and beyond. Andy Wolff The CCR Band
By: Andy Wolff
The CCR Band